| death_date = {{Death date and age|1942|2|13|1856|12|14|df=y}} {{cite news|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000578/19420216/021/0002|title=Death of Earl of Midleton|work=Aberdeen Press and Journal|date=16 February 1942}}

| death_place =

| nationality = British

| party = Conservative (until 1891)
Irish Unionist Alliance (1891–1919)
Unionist Anti-Partition League (1919–1922)

| alma_mater = Balliol College, Oxford

| parents = William Brodrick, 8th Viscount Midleton &
{{abbreviation|Hon.|The Honorable}} Augusta Mary Fremantle

| spouse = (1) Lady Hilda Charteris
(died 1901)
(2) Madeleine Stanley
(1876–1966)

| children = 1 son, 4 daughters{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

}}

William St John Fremantle Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton, KP, PC, DL (14 December 1856{{snd}}13 February 1942), styled as St John Brodrick until 1907 and as Viscount Midleton between 1907 and 1920, was a British Conservative and Irish Unionist Alliance politician. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1880 to 1906, as a government minister from 1886 to 1892 and from 1895 to 1900, and as a Cabinet minister from 1900 to 1905.

Background and education

Brodrick came of a mainly south-west Surrey family who in the early 17th century, in Sirs St John and Thomas Brodrick, were granted land in the south of Ireland, mainly in County Cork. The former settled at Midleton, between Cork and Youghal in 1641; and his son Alan Brodrick (1660–1728), Speaker of the Irish House of Commons and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was created Baron Brodrick in 1715 and Viscount Midleton in 1717 in the Irish peerage.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1796 the title of Baron Brodrick in the Peerage of Great Britain was created. The English family seat at Peper Harow, near Godalming, Surrey, was designed by Sir William Chambers. His father The 8th Viscount Midleton was a conservative in politics, holding seats West Surrey and Guildford in the House of Commons (November 1885{{snd}}January 1906), and who was responsible in the House of Lords for carrying the Infant Life Protection Act 1872, which helped regulate the practice of baby farming.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} William was educated at Windlesham, Eton and Balliol College, Oxford,{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}} where he served as president of the Oxford Union.{{Cite book|title=Muster Roll. Windlesham House, Brighton. A.D. 1837 to 1902|last=Malden|first=Henry C.|publisher=H. & C. Treacher|year=1902|edition=2nd|location=Brighton}} He was awarded a Doctorate of Laws (LLD) by Trinity College, Dublin. He owned, in submissions from his landowning heyday, about {{convert|5000|acre|km2}}.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

He maintained three homes: Peper Harow (House); 34 Portland Place, London (telephone number on the Langham exchange); Midleton (House), Ireland.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}} His family-settled land was probated before his widow's death in 1943 at {{GBP|68290|1943|round=-4|about=yes}} and £55,624 in other assets in 1942.https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk Calendar of Probates and Administrations, 1942 and 1943

Political career

Brodrick entered Parliament as Conservative member for West Surrey in 1880.https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000078681In 1883 he was appointed to a Royal Commission examining the condition of Irish prisons.{{cite web|pages=29–30|url=http://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/25184/page/29|title=House of Lords news summaries|work=The London Gazette|date=2 January 1883|access-date=11 January 2008|issue=25184|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161111213110/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/25184/page/29/data.pdf|archive-date=11 November 2016}} He was Financial Secretary to the War Office 1886–92;{{Cite ODNB |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32085 |title=Brodrick, (William) St John Fremantle, first earl of Midleton (1856–1942) |first=W B |last=Atkins |author2=Matthew, H C G |orig-year=2004 |year=2008 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/32085}} Under-Secretary of State for War, 1895–1898; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1898–1900; Secretary of State for War, 1900–1903;{{London Gazette|issue=27246|page=6923|date=13 November 1900}}{{London Gazette|issue=27272 |supp=y|page=552|date=24 January 1901 |nolink=y}}{{London Gazette|issue=27273|page=558|date=25 January 1901 |nolink=y}} and Secretary of State for India, 1903–05.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

He was Secretary of State for War during most of the Second Boer War (1899–1902). He thus had the responsibility of defending the British use of concentration camps in parliament. The conflict itself showed that the British army was not prepared for the guerrilla war of the Boers. He therefore initiated (though successors played a bigger part) a period of reform of the British army, which was focused on lessening the emphasis placed on mounted units in combat. In September 1902, Brodrick and Lord Roberts, the Commander-in-Chief of the army, visited Germany as guests to attend the German army maneuvers.{{cite newspaper The Times |title=The German maneuvers|date=5 September 1902 |page=6 |issue=36865}} In January 1903 he visited Malta and Gibraltar and inspected the garrisons there.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Mr. Brodrick at Gibraltar |date=28 January 1903 |page=5 |issue=36989}}

In 1904, during a crisis in British relations with Russia, he became the first member of a Cabinet since 1714 to attend a meeting of the Privy Council without being summoned to it by the monarch.Sir Almeric Fitzroy, Memoirs (London & New York, 1925), vol. I, p. 222. At the general election of January 1906, the outcome of which was a Liberal win (the biggest landside except for that of the 1931 National Government's Conservatives), he lost his Parliamentary seat, at Guildford, which he had held since 1885.{{London Gazette|issue=25609|page=3495|date=20 July 1886 |nolink=y}}{{London Gazette|issue=26311|page=4311|date=29 July 1892 |nolink=y}}{{London Gazette|issue=26651|page=4485|date=9 August 1895 |nolink=y}}{{London Gazette|issue=27244|page=6774|date=6 November 1900 |nolink=y}} From March 1907 to 1913 he was an alderman of London County Council.

From 1910 he was regarded as the nominal leader of the Irish Unionist Alliance (IUA) in Southern Ireland, while Sir Edward Carson led the party in Ulster (the Ulster Unionist Council). Many Irish followers and sympathisers saw him as remote or condescending, reliant on a few intimates and suspected he was more interested in promotion in British politics. In 1916 Midleton's lobbying helped to defeat an attempt to implement immediate Home Rule with Ulster exclusion; this was supported by the Ulster leader Edward Carson and the Home Ruler John Redmond, but Midleton believed it would be disastrous for the Southern Unionist minority, and called attention to the need to protect them from discriminatory taxation.{{Cite EB1922 |wstitle=Midleton, William St. John Fremantle Brodrick, 1st Earl of |volume=31 |page=942}}

In 1918, during the second, final year of his service on the Irish Convention,{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}} he tried to reach a compromise with Redmond which would allow Home Rule without partition subject to certain financial restrictions. This was rejected both by Redmond's followers (who saw it as too restrictive) and the hardline IUA rank-and-file, who deposed Midleton. He and his followers then formed the Unionist Anti-Partition League, an elite body mainly concerned with lobbying. It had some influence on the 1920 Government of Ireland Act, but none of the safeguards for Southern Unionist interests which it sought were included in the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. Successful lobbying by Midleton and associated Southern Unionists was instrumental in ensuring their representation in the Seanad of the Irish Free State.Letters to Lord Midleton 1917–1922 (Provost of Trinity College to Midleton) PRO 30/67 (Midleton Papers), National Archives. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N13987842

His speeches and/or questions in Parliament were in each year from 1880 to 1941, except 1906, when he held no seat, and 1940. They numbered 7,584, the last of which was a tribute to the passing of Lord Baden Powell.{{Cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/mr-william-brodrick/index.html|title = Mr William Brodrick (Hansard)}}

Honours and awards

Midleton was sworn into the Privy Council as of 1897. During his 1902 visit to Germany, he received the Grand Cross of the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle.{{cite newspaper The Times |title=Latest Intelligence - The German Army Maneuvres |date=16 October 1902 |page=4 |issue=36900}}

He received the Honorary Freedom and was appointed a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Broderers in 1902, his family having been associated with the company since the early 17th century.{{cite newspaper The Times |title=Court Circular|date=2 April 1902|page=7|issue=36731}}

He was appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick (KP) on 18 April 1916.

In the 1920 New Year Honours he was elevated in the British peerage system to Earl of Midleton,{{London Gazette|issue=31712 |supp=y|page=1|date=30 December 1919 |nolink=y}} which became extinct with the death of his son in 1979. From 1930 he was High Steward of the Borough of Kingston upon Thames.Midleton was included in W. T. Pike's [http://www.corkpastandpresent.ie/genealogy/CPPgenealogy21oct2013/pike_biographies_complete.pdf Contemporary Biographies] published in Cork (1911).

Family

File:St John Brodrick Vanity Fair 18 July 1901.jpg published in Vanity Fair in 1901.]]

File:St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton.jpg, Surrey]]

Brodrick married first, in 1880, Lady Hilda Charteris (died 1901), daughter of the 10th Earl of Wemyss, by whom he had five children:{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

Lady Muriel Brodrick (1881–1966), who married in 1901 Dudley Marjoribanks, 3rd Baron Tweedmouth (1874–1935) and left two daughters.
Lady Sybil Brodrick (1885–1935), was a maid of honour to Queen Mary 1911–1912, and married 1912 the diplomat Sir Ronald William Graham (1870–1949), no children.
George Brodrick, 2nd Earl of Midleton (1888–1979)
Lady Aileen Hilda Brodrick (1890–1970), who married in 1913 mountaineer and author Charles Francis Meade (1881–1975), by whom she had three daughters and a son.
Lady Moyra Brodrick (1897–1982), who married in 1922 General Sir Henry Charles Loyd (1891–1973), by who she had a son and a daughter.

After the death of his first wife, Brodrick re-married at St George's, Hanover Square on 5 January 1903, Madeleine Cecilia Carlyle Stanley (1876–1966), daughter of Colonel Hon. John Constantine Stanley (son of the 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley) and Mary Stewart-Mackenzie. His best man at the marriage was the Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, and several members of the royal family attended.{{cite newspaper The Times |title=Marriage of Mr. Brodrick and Miss Stanley |date=6 January 1903 |page=9 |issue=36970}} Madeleine Stanley′s mother had re-married the lawyer Sir Francis Jeune (later Baron St Helier), and her sister was married to the Conservative MP Augustus Henry Eden Allhusen. By this second marriage he had two sons:

Major Hon. Francis Alan Stewart-MacKenzie of Seaforth (1910-1943) who changed his name on inheriting Brahan Castle. In 1937 he married Margaret Laetitia Lyell MBE (1912-1995) daughter of Major Hon.Charles Lyell MP. He died during the Battle of Salerno on 11 September 1943 (the day after his brother).
Major Hon. Michael Victor Brodrick MC (1920-1943). He also died at the Battle of Salerno (the day before his brother).{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

His grandson Sir Julian St. John Loyd (by Lady Moyra) became land agent to Queen Elizabeth II at Sandringham. His daughter, Alexandra (Mrs Duncan Byatt), was a Lady-in-Waiting to Diana, Princess of Wales.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

His sister, {{abbreviation|Hon.|The Honorable}} Marian Cecilia married Sir James Whitehead, son of the inventor Robert Whitehead. Sir James Whitehead was to become the British Ambassador to Austria, and his niece Agathe was the first wife of Georg von Trapp; the story of their children and his second wife, Maria von Trapp, was the basis of the musical The Sound of Music.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

Another, {{abbreviation|Hon.|The Honorable}} Albinia, became an early supporter of Sinn Féin and became well known in Ireland under the name Gobnait Ní Bhruadair.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

Another, {{abbreviation|Hon.|The Honorable}} Edith later Mrs. Lyttleton Gell was a published author of at least 24 works, such as The Cloud of Witness: A daily sequence of great thoughts from many minds and an autobiography, Under Three Reigns: 1860–1944.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

Publications

Ireland, Dupe or Heroine, 1932{{Cite book |last=Midleton |first=William St John Fremantle Brodrick |url=https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000446978 |title=Ireland--dupe or heroine / |date=1933 |publisher=William Heinemann}}
Records and Reactions, 1856–1939, 1939{{Cite book |last=Midleton |first=William St John Fremantle Brodrick |url=https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000078681 |title=Records & reactions : 1856-1939 / |date=1939 |publisher=Dutton}}

Footnotes

References

{{Cite ODNB |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32085 |title=Brodrick, (William) St John Fremantle, first earl of Midleton (1856–1942) |first=W B |last=Atkins |author2=Matthew, H C G |orig-year=2004 |year=2008 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/32085}}
Obituary, The Times, 16 February 1942
{{EB1911|wstitle=Midleton, William St John Fremantle Brodrick, 9th Viscount|volume=18|page=419}}